This past Saturday, December 20th, two uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead while sitting in their car on a Brooklyn street corner. The perpetrator's motive for doing so? To get avenge the death of Eric Garner, a man whom who died at the hands of the NYPD a few months ago. The New York Post not only did a through job of covering the story, but it also incorporated the viewpoints of the authors, viewpoints that I also agree with.
The overall view of the authors is that the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, was certainly in the wrong for randomly killing two innocent officers. The authors express this primarily through describing the policemen, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, and the gunman, Brinsely. "Liu, 32, a newlywed of only two months, had seven years on the force; Ramos, 40, dad to two sons, had two years on the job." This makes a connection with readers because it touches the emotions. It causes one to have sympathy for the policemen and their families while making them upset that Brinsley would take the lives of a husband and a father.
Next, the Post goes on to say, "Brinsley was already a fugitive, suspected of putting a bullet in his ex-girlfriend's abdomen at her residence in Baltimore." After painting this picture of a man who destroys families, the authors also state that he is suspected of killing his girlfriend. This makes readers perceive Brinsley as the villain, which he certainly is in this situation. After this, the New York Post outlines various criminal activities that Brinsley engaged in prior to his killing the two policemen, further adding onto this portrayal of him being the bad guy.
I'd argue that justice was not served concerning the Eric Garner case. Excess force was used on Eric Garner in order to arrest him, including a chokehold which was banned by the NYPD in 1993, and there was probably a better way to go about detaining him. However, I believe these two innocent policemen did not deserve to be killed because of other officer's misconduct. It is not right that it should happen to them, and crimes such as these simply create more tension between civilians and police. They are nothing more than fuel to the fire of terror and hatred that many are currently experiencing, and it is the last thing we need if we hope to solve the issues between police and the general population.
Link to the New York Post's article: http://nypost.com/2014/12/20/2-nypd-cops-shot-execution-style-in-brooklyn/
And in case you haven't seen the Eric Garner video: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/04/i-cant-breathe-eric-garner-chokehold-death-video
I almost did a post on this when I heard about it. I kind of feel that the media is responsible for such extreme action against these two cops. While spreading word about Ferguson has helped address a serious issue within the police force, it has brought about hate for all cops. This generalization of cops as being unethical or racist is awful. There are plenty of cases in which cops are in fact the guilty ones, but many are good lawful people. They risk their lives for us everyday and this is the treatment that we return. This man was clearly crazy but the mass media coverage of the Ferguson protests brought out his anger.
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